McInerney's day on the stand

By Kenneth C. Crowe II, Staff writer

Updated 10:34 pm, Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Former City Clerk William McInerney arrives at the Rensselaer County Courthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011. He was expected to testify in front of a grand jury that is examining allegations of ballot fraud in the 2009 Working Families Party primary. (Kenneth C. Crowe II / Times Union)

Former City Clerk William McInerney arrives at the Rensselaer...

Former Troy City Clerk William A. McInerney, right, a Democrat, admitted Friday that he signed a voter's signature to a Working Families Party absentee ballot in 2009 to steer the vote to his party's candidate in front of Judge George Pulver in Rensselaer County Court in Troy, N.Y. Aug 26, 2011. Standing with McInerney is his attorney James Long. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

TROY — Former Troy city clerk William McInerney, the Democrat who pleaded guilty in the ballot fraud case and agreed to cooperate with the special prosecutor, went before a grand jury Tuesday for several hours.

The jury began work at about 9 a.m. and was dismissed at 2:15 p.m. and McInerney, who is expected to be a key witness for Special Prosecutor Trey Smith's broadening probe of election fraud in Troy, spent most of that time on the stand.

Three voters also each briefly testified.

No one including Smith would comment on what transpired or when the grand jury will be back for more testimony.

That grand jury went out of existence but a new panel was picked and began hearing testimony after McInerney was implicated in the forgery of ballots.

He pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of second-degree forgery, admitting he signed someone else's name to a ballot and agreed to help authorities investigate other officials.

The new grand jury is investigating City Council President Clem Campana, Common Councilman John Brown, and Dan Brown, a Democratic operative and the councilman's brother.

McInerney arrived at the Rensselaer County Courthouse just as it opened for business Tuesday. He slipped in before Smith and most of the grand jurors had even arrived and then left by a back door avoiding the press.